A planned 50-storey apartment and hotel development on the front step of Queen Victoria Market could be the first of a swag of new high-rise towers to overlook the market.

Developer MIT Australia has lodged a planning application for two towers of 50 and 30 storeys with a 210-room hotel and 609 apartments at the corner of William and Franklin streets.

The site is next to land the state government recently transferred to Melbourne City Council as part of plans for a $250 million redevelopment of the market.

The rejuvenation is expected to be partly financed through the council facilitating apartment developments on the edge of the market.

The MIT development is focused on the market, with plans for 279 public car parking spaces for market visitors and a 372-space public bike hub with showers, gym and pool.

Development architect Callum Fraser, from Elenberg Fraser, said the development complemented the redevelopment of the market.

“We can give you a couple of hundred public car [spaces] on site and combine that with big bike parking facilities and a gym and changing rooms and create that into a transport interchange for the area,” he said.

He said development near the market could be improved.

“At the moment we are not getting the quality of built form outcome along Franklin Street that the markets deserve so what we are proposing is a slightly more upmarket redevelopment there with the hotel anchoring it that can provide a local tourism asset that I think the market really needs,” he said.

Melbourne City Council data shows international tourists rate the market their No. 1 destination in the centre of the city.

Mr Fraser said there had been early discussions with the Ace Hotel Group from the United States about the hotel component of the development.

He said the market should have more housing close to it.

“How about living five minutes from the market where you can wander down and do your shopping on a daily basis,” he said.

“The more people we can facilitate into using the market the better the market’s prospects are long term,” he said.

The proposed new William Street development will cast a shadow over Flagstaff Gardens. Mr Fraser said the towers had been designed to minimise the shadowing.

“It doesn’t have a large negative impact,” he said. “The idea of the building form is that it is very skinny with regard to the shadow profile,” he said.

The planning application is with the state government.

MIT is owned by education entrepreneurs Shesh Ghale and his wife Jamuna Gurung, who are renovating the Argus building on LaTrobe Street.

The building produces only 2 per cent “additional” shadow in the popular park according to a cutting-edge solar analysis in the plans. Hip United States boutique group Ace Hotel Group has confirmed its interest in the project.

Student friendly

Raised in Nepal, Mr Ghale and Ms Gurung arrived in Melbourne two decades ago. Since then, the couple have built a $265 million fortune, based around private college the Melbourne Institute of Technology (MIT), and a commercial property portfolio, according to the BRW Rich List.

Who is Shesh Ghale?

A long dedication, education, opportunities, mutual help, organized skill and better understanding of the market or consumer lead a person to the success. A successful personality can be the inspiration to the society.Among few successful Nepalese persons , Shesh Ghale and Jamuna Gurung are notable names. After three consecutive listing on BRW Australia’s Richest List, these names have been a Hot Cake in Nepalese Diaspora.

Born in Lamjung as a Normal Villager, Shesh Ghale had moved to Australia in 1990, his wife Jamuna Gurung after 6 months in 1991 and their son in 1992.

They went there for business studies at the beginning, as other Nepalese student they applied for the Permanent Residency (PR) in 1995, which was easily approved , thereafter, Ghale started teaching job at Australian Academy after getting Masters Degree in Business from Victoria university, whereas Jamuna continued her business degree at Swinburne, where she got her degree as a marketing specialist.
Ghale lost his job during late 1995 that led the couple to plan for a business, they established the MIT (Melbourne Institute of Technology) in 1996, Ghale as CEO and Jamuna as MD of the Universty.Since then they have around 3000 students after several ups and downs.

When the Monarchy in Nepal was overthrown on 28th May 2008, the couple returned to Kathmandu, their Home county and managed to purchase the attractive plot of land owned by Royal family near the Royal Palace.The couple has now been able to get a 25-year contract with the international hotel group Starwood to built five star Hotel with 225 rooms,